Wile biology module 1, the study of life, study guide

Terms

The four criteria for life are:1. All life forms contain deoxyribonucleic acid, which is called DNA.2. All life forms have a method by which they extract energy from the surroundings and convert itinto energy that sustains them.3. All life forms can sense changes in their surroundings and respond to those changes.4. All life forms reproduce.

An organism is classified as a carnivore. Is it a heterotroph or an autotroph? Is it a producer,consumer, or decomposer?

Carnivores eat non-plants. This means they depend on other organisms for food, making themheterotrophs, which are also known as consumers.

An organism has receptors on tentacles that come out of its head. If those tentacles were cut off inan accident, what life function would be most hampered?

If the tentacles are cut off, then the organism has no receptors, which sense the conditions of theenvironment. Thus, sensing changes in the surroundings and responding to those changes will be hardfor this wounded creature.

A parent and two offspring are studied. Although there are many similarities between the parentand the offspring, there are also some differences. Do these organisms reproduce sexually orasexually?

These organisms reproduce sexually. In sexual reproduction, the offspringâ€™s traits are a blend of theparents, their parents, and so on. This would account for the differences between parent and offspring.

What is wrong with the following statement?â€œScience has proven that energy must always be conserved.â€

Science cannot prove anything. Since it is based on experiments that may be flawed, its conclusionsare always tentative.

Briefly explain the scientific method.

In the scientific method, a person starts by making observations. The person then develops ahypothesis to explain those observations or to answer a question. The person (often with the help ofothers) then designs experiments to test the hypothesis. After the hypothesis has been tested by asignificant amount of data and is consistent with all of it, then it becomes theory. After more testingwith generations of data, the theory could become a scientific law.

Why does the story of spontaneous generation illustrate the limitations of science?

The story of spontaneous generation shows how almost 2,000 years of executing the scientificmethod resulted in a law that was clearly wrong. Thus, you canâ€™t put too much faith in scientific laws.They are fallible.

Where does the wise person place his or her faith: science or the Bible?

The wise person trusts the Bible, because it is infallible.

Why is the theory of abiogenesis just another example of the idea of spontaneous generation?

This is anexample of spontaneous generation, a former law that said life could arise from non-life. We nowknow that this law is wrong.

Name the classification groups in our hierarchical classification scheme in order.

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

An organism is a multicellular consumer made of eukaryotic cells. To what kingdom does itbelong?

Animalia - Since it is multicellular, it is not Monera or Protista. In addition, it is not Plantaebecause it is not an autotroph (consumers are heterotrophs), and it is not Fungi because it is not adecomposer.

. If we were using the three-domain system of classification, in which domain would the organismin question #12 belong?

Since it has eukaryotic cells, it would be in the Eukarya domain.

An organism is a single-celled consumer made of prokaryotic cells. To what kingdom does itbelong?

It belongs in kingdom Monera, because all organisms made of prokaryotic cells belong to thiskingdom.

If we were using the three-domain system of classification, could you determine the domain of theorganism in question #14? If so, give the domain. If not, give the possible domains in which it couldbe placed.

All members of kingdom Monera are either in the Archaea domain or the Bacteria domain. Youcannot tell which domain without knowing more about the organism. However, it is either in Archaeaor Bacteria, depending on its characteristics.